Evens Everywhere: The Early October Odds Board Without a Favourite

A board without a favourite

The story of the early odds for the 17–19 October gameweek is not a plunge or a drift — it is the absence of either. The latest match odds in FanTribe's fixture data show all ten fixtures priced identically: 2.00 the home win, 3.00 the draw, 2.00 the away win. Evens either way, 2/1 the stalemate. As it stands, the market rates the two sides in every match as equally likely to win, and it refuses to name a favourite anywhere.

Where level prices meet a lopsided table

Set those prices against the Premier League table and the friction is immediate. Fulham host Hull City AFC on Saturday, and according to the Premier League table the visitors arrive second — six points from two games, three goals scored and none conceded — while Fulham, 14th, opened with a defeat. The odds still make it dead level.

It is a table in which, two games in, Hull City out-point Chelsea — yet Chelsea's trip to Everton is priced no differently from Hull's to Fulham.

Newcastle United, third and unbeaten, welcome an Aston Villa side yet to score and already four goals down on their only outing, and the price there is 2.00 apiece as well. Manchester City, top on six points, cannot be separated from an Ipswich Town team that won its opener. Liverpool, with two draws from two, are rated the equal of a Brentford side that won its only fixture.

Even Monday night's meeting between Tottenham Hotspur and Coventry City is level: Spurs sit bottom, pointless and goalless after two games, with Coventry 17th and also searching for a first point.

The rest of the card looks exactly the same:

• Everton v Chelsea
• AFC Bournemouth v Sunderland AFC
• Leeds United v Manchester United
• Brighton & Hove Albion v Crystal Palace
• Nottingham Forest v Arsenal

All of them: 2.00, 3.00, 2.00.

Six weeks for the market — and the fans — to move

These are early prices, with more than six weeks until the first kick-off, and there is plenty of room for them to move as team news and form come into focus. That makes the weeks ahead a genuine contest between the market and FanTribe's community: our fan prediction data for this gameweek has not yet been logged, and when a bookmaker cannot split two sides, supporter sentiment is often the sharpest signal going.

We will track how these prices shift as predictions land on FanTribe, and how your calls compare with the closing lines. Until then, on the market's own numbers, all ten of these fixtures are coin flips.